FLORIDA – Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier sued Discord, alleging the online chat platform marketed itself as safe for children while failing to adequately verify users’ ages, limit contact between minors and strangers, or remove predators.RELATED: Uthmeier asks court to temporarily block OpenAI from offering ChatGPT to minorsThe lawsuit, filed Oct. 15 in Glades County, accuses Discord of violating Florida’s consumer protection law and a state law protecting children online. It also alleges negligence, negligent misrepresentation and public nuisance. The claims have not been proven in court.“We’ve arrested more than 2,100 child predators in this state since I took office,” Uthmeier said in a statement. “Again and again, their trail to our kids leads back to Discord.”The complaint says Discord’s registration process asks users for an email address and date of birth but does not verify their age. It alleges that the platform’s default settings for years allowed strangers to send children friend requests and direct messages, and that Discord does not scan all private chats for rule violations.Discord reported about 2.7 million monthly U.S. users younger than 18 as of February 2024, according to the lawsuit. The company has more than 200 million monthly users worldwide, the complaint says, and sells paid Nitro subscriptions to Florida consumers, including children.The lawsuit cites several Florida cases involving people accused or convicted of exploiting children after contacting them through Discord. In one case, a 60-year-old St. Cloud man used a false teenage identity to contact nearly 300 minors and was sentenced to life in prison, the complaint says. In another, a 19-year-old Highlands County man lured an 11-year-old Miami-Dade County girl from Roblox to Discord before sexually assaulting and kidnapping her. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison, according to the complaint.Discord announced new teen safety settings on Sept. 22, months after Uthmeier’s office opened an investigation and issued a subpoena, the complaint says. The attorney general alleges the changes came too late and do not adequately address the risks.Uthmeier is asking a judge to bar the practices alleged in the lawsuit and order civil penalties, consumer restitution and other damages. The complaint seeks penalties of up to $10,000 per willful violation of Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act and up to $150,000 per violation of the state’s online child-protection law when Discord allegedly knew a user was younger than 18.“Invisible predators are locating Florida’s children online,” Patti Rendon, a member of the Hillsborough County School Board, said in a statement. Joe Pepe of the Florida Department of Health said online platforms can provide benefits while still needing to protect young users from preventable harm.Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.
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